Loserdom #25

In the twenty-fifth issue of Irish DIY punk zine Loserdom, Anto celebrates the zine's 20th anniversary! It contains interviews, one with Barcelona punk band Una Béstia Incontrolable and one with Irish filmmaker Graham Jones, a long article about how to responsibly dispose of plastic, reviews of LPs, gigs, and zines, and an appeal to get rid of the 8th Amendment, which outlaws abortion in Ireland.

Back in the Friedman days of Factsheet 5, there was a categorization of “Utne” for zines that contained everything from reviews of live music, diatribes about being vegetarian for over half of your life, a confessional letter to the reader admitting to how you’ve butted up against your values by buying a car, newspaper reviews in their coverage of racism in the Middle East, memories of roadkill that evolves into a movie review, being hopeful and encouraging about ballot initiatives around abortion rights and gay marriage, and zine reviews galore. Normally, Anto’s brother Eugene contributes some comics but he’s a recent father. Overall, this structure and range of substance makes the zine feel of the 90s. It’s hard to pin down and describe, without a particular theme or even three. My biggest takeaway is recalling how I used to hold myself to these impossible standards and lack of seeming contradictions, how I let my values be forever pushed further and further into a lonelier bubble. And now, I can have my values and know when to push back with room to breathe and knowing who I am and what I believe in, accepting it as part of my full character rather than my weakest moments or seeming contradictions. -Joe